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A year on since the Covid-19 pandemic first began Vietnamese are taking more control of their health and finance, driving greater interest in fitness and well-being along with insurance and retirement planning. — Photo courtesy of Manulife

HCM CITY — A year on since the Covid-19 pandemic first began Vietnamese are taking more control of their health and finance, driving greater interest in fitness and well-being along with insurance and retirement planning, as Asia looks to the longer-term impact of the disease, according to new research from Manulife.

The latest version of the ‘Manulife Asia Care Survey’ takes a closer look into customers’ concerns, priorities and aspirations, polling 4,000 people across the region who either own insurance or intend to buy it in the next six months, including around 520 in Việt Nam.

Nearly all (95 per cent) of those who worry most about Covid have made an effort on a personal level to improve their overall health, mostly through more regular exercise (58 per cent) and improved diet (54 per cent).

In Việt Nam, all the respondents said they had taken action to help them manage Covid, with 72 per cent saying this included doing more regular exercise. More people in Hà Nội (85 per cent) do more regular exercise than in HCM City (73 per cent).

Almost everyone is self-monitoring health, and Vietnamese pay the most attention to the number of steps walked (44 per cent) among the four emerging markets covered in the survey, against a regional average of 38 per cent.

Three out of five (60 per cent) of Vietnamese also own fitness wearables, well above the regional average of 46 per cent.

A large majority of Vietnamese (79 per cent) also said retirement planning has become more important since Covid-19 started, below the Philippines (90 per cent), Indonesia (88 per cent) and Malaysia (83 per cent) but higher than all the developed markets.

The regional average is 73 per cent.

This high level of interest in retirement ties in with their concerns about personal wealth.

In Việt Nam, more than half (52 per cent) thought their personal wealth would decline as a result of Covid-19. The rate was only higher in Hong Kong (58 per cent) and Singapore (55 per cent).

Aligned with taking better control of health and finance is an interest to buy new insurance.

In Việt Nam, a remarkable nine out of ten (91 per cent) said they intend to buy new insurance in the next six months, higher than anywhere else in the region. The regional average is 71 per cent.

The Vietnamese respondents were most interested in life, hospitalisation, accident and critical illness cover.

Three quarters (75 per cent) of Vietnamese respondents, again more than anywhere else in the region, said they prefer to manage their policies through digital means such as mobile apps, including for claims and payment.

The survey found that 71 per cent of them had spoken to an agent about purchasing insurance, well above the regional average of 64 per cent, with only Hong Kong (77 per cent) and mainland China (76 per cent) scoring higher.

“Vietnamese insurance customers are seeking more digital touchpoints that are safe, simple and convenient,” Sang Lee, CEO of Manulife Vietnam, said.

“While those digital habits are here for the long term, a good many still like to speak to their agents. This underscores the importance of our omnichannel approach, one that fully integrates digital, while maximising our human qualities of empathy, trust and a holistic understanding of our customers’ needs.” — VNS

Visitors to the Hùng Temple Relic are asked to wear masks and keep their distance from others. — VNA/VNS Photo Trung Kiên

HÀ NỘI — The Hùng Kings Festival, which pays tribute to the founders and first kings of the nation, will be held similarly to last year, with ceremonial activities but no festivities.

The plans for the national major festival were decided at a meeting of the People’s Committee of the northern province of Phú Thọ where it is held annually.

The ceremonies will be conducted with the death anniversary of the great father of the nation Lạc Long Quân and the incense offering to commemorate great mother of the nation Âu Cơ on April 17 and incense offering ceremony to commemorate the Hùng Kings and the flower offering ceremony on April 21.

Speaking at the meeting, vice chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee Hồ Đại Dũng said the event would take place in a respectful atmosphere, while strictly abiding by measures to prevent COVID-19 from spreading under the guidance of the Ministry of Health.

This is the second year the Hùng Kings Festival will include only ceremonial activities and no festivities.

According to Lê Trường Giang, director of the Hùng Kings Temple Relic Management Board, the temple received more than 20,000 visitors on the occasion of Tết (Lunar New Year).

“The measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have been taken seriously at the historical site. At the same time, the visitors’ awareness has been much improved this year,” he said.

The Hùng Kings Temple Relic Complex covers more than 1,000ha, more than half of which is forest. The complex is scattered with dozens of temples dedicated to the legendary kings.

There are some 300 temples dedicated to the Hùng Kings and other figures from the Hồng Bàng dynasty (2879 to 258 BC) in Phú Thọ, and nearly 1,500 sites dedicated to the kings throughout the country.

UNESCO placed the “Worship of Hùng kings in Phú Thọ” on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on December 6, 2012,

The Hùng Kings Festival is held annually from the 8th to the 11th day of the third lunar month, which falls on April 19 to April 22 this year, as a tribute to the Hùng Kings who are credited with establishing the nation.

The main festival day, which is also a public holiday in Việt Nam, is on the 10th day or April 21. — VNS

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) transits through South China Sea while conducting routine underway operations, February 5, 2021. — Photo from the US Department of Defense

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam is a responsible member of the international community and always upholds provisions under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS 1982), spokesperson for the foreign ministry Lê Thị Thu Hằng said.

She made the statement on Thursday in the regular press briefing, held virtually this time due to COVID-19 in Hà Nội, when asked for Việt Nam’s reaction to the US Navy’s first freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) held under the Biden administration in February.

The guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain reportedly conducted the FONOP near the Trường Sa (Spratly) and Hoàng Sa (Paracel) archipelagoes in the South China Sea (known as the East Sea by Việt Nam) over which Việt Nam has repeatedly claimed sovereignty, but contested by mainland China and China’s Taiwan.

“By engaging in innocent passage without giving prior notification to or asking permission from any of the claimants,” the US Navy noted in a statement.

Also regarding the recent statement by French Minister of Armed Forces Florence Parly that France had sent the nuclear submarine, SNA Emeraude, to patrol the South China Sea, together with the naval support ship BSAM Seine, the said spokesperson said: “As a responsible member of the international community and a signatory of the UNCLOS 1982, Việt Nam always upholds the provisions of the UNCLOS, including items related to maritime and flight activities over the sea regions set up in accordance with UNCLOS 1982.”

“The maintenance of peace, stability, security and order, safety, maritime and overflight freedom, the rule of law, with respect to sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction of the littoral countries in the South China Sea, in a manner that is consistent with the UNCLOS 1982, is the shared goal, interests, responsibility, and aspiration of all countries and of the international community,” Hằng said.

Việt Nam hopes that all countries would strive for “positive contribution” to the maintenance of peace and stability on the basis of international law in the South China Sea region, the Vietnamese diplomat stressed. — VNS

By Van Phuc – Translated by Kim Khanh

The list was made by British journalist and travel writer Monisha Rajesh based on her book ‘Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-Mile Adventure’.

According to the author, starting in Hanoi, the Reunification Express runs the length of the country right down to Ho Chi Minh City in the south, of which the finest segment is the first half of the journey to Da Nang.

Threading deep into the capital city, the train offers voyeuristic views into the backs of houses as families unwind for the night, before emerging into glorious sunshine the following morning, she wrote.

Climbing for miles through the jungle, banana leaves flapping against the windows, the train comes within inches of villagers’ walls and gardens, so close that you can make eye contact and wave.

At the final stretch, the train curls around the clifftops overlooking the sea where a finger of golden sand runs along the edge of the water in Lang Co Bay, before finally pulling into Da Nang Station.

Other train journeys in Asia are also named in the list, including Tokyo to Osaka, Japan, by Tokaido Shinkansen; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to Beijing, China, by the Trans-Mongolian Express; Bangkok to Nam Tok by Thailand’s Death Railway; Xining to Lhasa, China, by Qinghai-Tibet Railway; and Mumbai to Madgaon, India, by the Mondovi Express.